On paper, Acer's X27 display has everything you want, plus a fan to cool the controller when you are displaying HDR content. The 144Hz GSYNC display is 4K and sports a DisplayHDR 1000 rating, but there are of course limitations. For instance 4:4:4 RGB at 4K is limited to 120Hz in the SDR and 98 Hz in HDR mode thanks to the bandwidth limits of DisplayPort, if you want to max out your refresh rete you are reduced to 4:2:2.

"Well, the Asus isn’t the only such monitor on the market. The new Acer Predator X27 uses the same AU Optronics panel, so they’re both equipped with the same specifications, but that doesn’t mean they perform the same as I’ll discuss a bit later."

The G-MASTER G3266HS-B1 from Iiyama may not appeal to young gamers but for those who's eyes have seen better days, a 32" 1080p display is a decent size, and it includes a peak 144Hz refresh rate and FreeSync. The 1800R curve may not appeal to some, especially if they were planning to use this from a fair distance away but it is a feature many look for. Check out what Kitguru thought of this inexpensive, extra large sized, HD display in their full review.

"However, Iiyama offers a nice selection of gaming-oriented monitors that are a bit easier on the wallet, and we’re looking at the largest of these, the 32in G-MASTER G3266HS-B1. Will it turn out to be a bit of a banger or a Ferrari lite?"

Overview

While we tend to focus on PC Gaming-oriented displays here at PC Perspective, they don't necessarily represent the highest-end of the PC monitor market. Often professionals working in photography and videography areas have stricter requirements for the displays they use.

Just imagine, if you are mastering video in wide gamut color spaces like DCI-P3 for HDR playback, you need to be assured that the source image on your PC is being accurately represented on your display. While the highest-end production use reference displays that can cost upwards of $20,000, there's a growing market for more modestly priced displays for prosumers that can also provide reasonable assurance of color accuracy.

This is the type of consumer that ASUS targets with their "ProArt" lineup. Today, we are taking a look at the ASUS ProArt PA32UC, a factory-calibrated 32" 3840x2160 display capable of 99.5% AdobeRGB coverage.

This newish FreeSync display from Philips features a 1800R curve to it's 31.5" 1080p display, with a top refresh rate of 75Hz. The panel itself is an advanced Vertical Alignment display with a W-LED backlight, 8-bit colour and a reported 5ms response time. It is relatively inexpensive, at £230 or roughly $300 and Kitguru found that this required some compromises on Philips' part. There is still a market for it, as many gamers are less interested in colour accuracy when playing DOOM and care far more about decent response without tearing. Check out the full review for more.

"The Philips 328E8QJAB5 is a monitor that serves up a tempting design for a surprising price. The £230 cost undercuts most of its rivals – and, for that money, you still get a 31.5in curved panel with AMD FreeSync."

In addition to what looks like plenty of stock in our local store, these monitors are also available for the same price from the Microcenter Web Store and able to be shipped anywhere in the US. This is unusual as generally, Microcenter sale prices, like their deep discounts on CPUs, aren't available through their online store.

Obviously, retailers are at their own discretion to discount products, so don't take this as guidance from NVIDIA, Acer, or ASUS as Microcenter seems to be the only retailer offering this price. Still, a 10% price discount on premium products like these, shortly after launch isn't exactly a good sign for sales numbers.

Even at $1,800, we would still say that these monitors are too expensive to recommend, but a 10% discount is nice on what we consider to be the highest quality PC gaming monitor on the market.

BenQ EW3270U Review

The HDR craze continues to heat up in the PC display market, and while some manufacturers are aiming at the high end of performance and price, BenQ is targeting a much more attainable price point with the recent launch of the EW3270U, a 32-inch 4K HDR display.

The EW3270U touts support for HDR, FreeSync, and both DCI-P3 (95 percent coverage) and sRGB (100 percent) but its relatively low price of $699 means that buyers can expect some compromises. We tested the EW3270U to find out if its performance and limitations were worth the price, and discovered a display with very good color accuracy that may be just what mid-range 4K buyers are looking for.

A long time coming

To say that the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ has been a long time coming is a bit of an understatement. In the computer hardware world where we are generally lucky to know about a product for 6-months, the PG27UQ is a product that has been around in some form or another for at least 18 months.

Originally demonstrated at CES 2017, the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ debuted alongside the Acer Predator X27 as the world's first G-SYNC displays supporting HDR. With promised brightness levels of 1000 nits, G-SYNC HDR was a surprising and aggressive announcement considering that HDR was just starting to pick up steam on TVs, and was unheard of for PC monitors. On top of the HDR support, these monitors were the first announced displays sporting a 144Hz refresh rate at 4K, due to their DisplayPort 1.4 connections.

However, delays lead to the PG27UQ being displayed yet again at CES this year, with a promised release date of Q1 2018. Even more slippages in release lead us to today, where the ASUS PG27UQ is available for pre-order for a staggering $2,000 and set to ship at some point this month.

In some ways, the launch of the PG27UQ very much mirrors the launch of the original G-SYNC display, the ROG Swift PG278Q. Both displays represented the launch of an oft waited technology, in a 27" form factor, and were seen as extremely expensive at their time of release.

Finally, we have our hands on a production model of the ASUS PG27UQ, the first monitor to support G-SYNC HDR, as well as 144Hz refresh rate at 4K. Can a PC monitor really be worth a $2,000 price tag?

There is a lot to parse in Guru 3D's review of the Samsung C32HG70 a 32", 1440p, 144Hz curved VA panel as they delve into details about HDR and FreeSync as well as discussing the merits of 4k versus 2560x1440 or 3440x1440. If you are already familiar with those topics you can jump into the meat of their review of this impressive panel. The display offers great SDR performance but truly shines when you enable HDR and install the latest firmware updates, after which you can test your experience in Ultimate FreeSync which offers a dynamic range of 48-144Hz or in Standard which limits the range to 120-144Hz to prevent tearing which might occur in some setups. There is a lot to go through in this review, so you might as well get started.

"This Quantum Dot 2560x1440 monitor can do 144Hz combined with FreeSync and FreeSync2. That eliminates stutter and tearing while gaming in HDR. The Samsung C32HG70 is fitted with a VA panel offering proper image quality, connectivity, and features."

UPDATE 6/19/18 @ 6:30pm: Did you miss the live stream of today's event? NO WORRIES! Here is the replay for you to learn all about AMD's changes for FreeSync!

Interested in new gaming displays? Interested in new gaming displays that can also do HDR? Then you are going to want to swing by the PC Perspective Live! channel on Tuesday, June 19th at 4pm ET / 1pm PT to hear from AMD about its plans for the future of FreeSync. Though we cannot spill the beans yet, I'm told that AMD will be discussing some changes to FreeSync at our event, with maybe an additional surprise or two along the way.

This is your chance to ask questions about FreeSync, HDR gaming, FreeSync on TVs, and much more!

And what's a live stream without prizes? AMD agrees and wants offer up some awesome hardware for those of you that tune in to watch our live stream!

AMD FreeSync Live Stream and Giveaway

1pm PT / 4pm ET - June 19th

The event will take place Tuesday, June 19th at 1pm PT / 4pm ET at https://www.pcper.com/live. There you’ll be able to catch the live video stream as well as use our chat room to interact with the audience. To win the prizes you will have to be watching the live stream, with exact details of the methodology for handing out the goods coming at the time of the event.

I will be joined by Antal Tungler, Sr Manager of Technology Marketing, to answer your questions about FreeSync technology, implementation, products, direction, etc.!

If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below and we'll look through them just before the start of the live stream. Of course you'll be able to tweet us questions @pcper and we'll be keeping an eye on the IRC chat as well for more inquiries. What do you want to know and hear from AMD?

So join us! Set your calendar for Tuesday at 1pm PT / 4pm ET and be here at PC Perspective to catch it. If you are a forgetful type of person, sign up for the PC Perspective Live mailing list that we use exclusively to notify users of upcoming live streaming events including these types of specials and our regular live podcast. I promise, no spam will be had!

ASUS is showing off three very different displays at their Computex booth, one designed specifically for console games, one for those who like their 1080p displays doubled up and curved and one for those who use their monitor for creative purposes.

The CG32UQ is a 31.5" 4k display with HDR10 support and VESA DisplayHDR 600 compliance as well as 10bit colour, assuming your console can provide a compatible source. In addition to this list of features, the display uses FreeSync to vary the refresh rate between 40 to 60Hz to prevent tearing when you are pushing the console to the limits of its ability to send video to the display. As it is a gaming display there are a couple of unique features, two USB charging ports on the base to make sure your wireless controllers are always juiced, with two additional USB ports available for peripherals. Last, it comes with a remote which can control the displays OSD so you don't have to get up from the couch to change your settings.

Next up we have the professional ASUS ProArt PA34V IPS display, a 21:9 aspect ratio 31.9" monitor with a resolution of 3440x1440 and a 1900R curvature. The slightly lower resolution offers a wide adaptive sync window, from 40 to 100Hz. More important to the professional is this monitors ability to display the entirety of the Adobe sRGB gamut as well as letting you save colour profiles on the monitor itself, as opposed to your computer. Connections on this monitor include a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports, offering an impressive variety of ways to connect devices to your monitor.

The third one is the one you have been waiting for, as ASUS outdoes the Samsung C49HG90 Ken was so impressed by. The VG49V is also 49" of 32:9, 3840x1080 VA panel glory but it sports a proper 1800R curvature, no straight ends here! This monitor's FreeSync range covers 48 to 144Hz, perfect for high end gaming, with ASUS' Extreme Low Motion Blur kicking in at 85, 100, or 120Hz. The PR also mentions GameFast technology, which ASUS claims to have delivered input lag of 11.9ms when they tested the monitor.